Health Care for Kids in PA-message-Rendell
Email from Governor, Ed Rendell on October 13, 2006 Time to Act Is Now To Give PA Kids Access to Health Insurance Under Cover All Kids Thousands of Pennsylvania children are waiting for action in Harrisburg so they can have access to health insurance. But time is running out and we can't do anything without the Legislature's support. The leaders of the General Assembly - both House and Senate - signed a letter last June as part of the budget negotiation promising to pass legislation this month to put in place health care insurance coverage under our Cover All Kids program beginning in January. It was a bipartisan agreement. While they included money in the current budget, they haven't passed the needed legislation. With only three days remaining when both chambers are in session, I hope they are planning to keep their promise, and ensure health insurance to more than 23,000 Pennsylvania children. We all agree that our children are our most important resource. Cover All Kids is one way we can prove that we mean it when we say how important they are. While we have one of the highest rates of insured children in the nation at 96 percent, we won't be satisfied until each and every child in Pennsylvania has health coverage. Cover All Kids is the way to help us achieve that goal. Cover All Kids will deliver peace-of-mind to families whose income is too high to be covered by the state's highly successful Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which provides free and low-cost health insurance for kids. Parents can tell you that it's especially important that kids have access to a wide range of services so that they have a healthy start in life. My Cover All Kids program will guarantee affordable, comprehensive health care coverage for visits to doctors, hospitalization, prescription drugs, vision, home health care, and mental health and substance abuse services. A young girl and her brother hug and smile for the camera. In the first year, we will invest $4.4 million in Cover All Kids, which will be supplemented by $10.2 million in federal funds. Cover All Kids will expand our CHIP program - which is currently the oldest and most successful program in the nation - and make sure all of Pennsylvania's children are insured and getting the services they need to grow up healthy. Premiums will be affordable for all families because the payment is based on a sliding scale determined by the families' income. In the last four years, we've increased funding for CHIP, and 16,000 more Pennsylvania kids are getting health coverage than in 2003. Still, more than 133,000 are uninsured, and it is their families we'll be targeting with Cover All Kids. No one wants to see a sick child. And Cover All Kids will provide affordable health insurance to protect and care for our children. Cover All Kids is a positive solution for Pennsylvania, our children and their families. The time for action is now!